March 11, 2024 • 25 mins
Episode 101 marks our two year anniversary! Thank you all so much for two years of celebrating running in Kansas City and around the world! The running community means so much to us and it was shown this weekend with the outpouring of Love at the B.E.A.R.D. Run 5k/10k. Join us for a weekend review of running, racing, friendship, and fellowship.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:11):
Hello everyone, greetings and salutations.Welcome back to another episode of the Back
of the Pack podcast. I'm yourhost, Kyle Walker. Thank you so
much for tuning in. Another verybusy weekend is now in the books.
I hope everyone had a great timerunning. It's a beautiful outside. We're
in March, almost to mid March. We're lucking out here in our area.
I hope you are in yours aswell as the weather has just been
(00:34):
splendid. Before we really jump intoanything, I want to make sure to
throw out there from the time ofthis recording, which is March eleventh,
you have ten days left if youwant to throw your name in for the
New York City Marathon. The lotteryis still taking people. It is open
for ten more days. It closeson March twenty first, and the drawing
(00:55):
for the lottery is on March twentyeighth, So we will know on March
twenty if any of us made itto the New York City Marathon. So,
if that is something big and importantto you, and again you have
heard what I think of this race. You've heard it a lot big fan.
If you want to do it yourself, then definitely get your name in
the lottery for the New York CityMarathon, so that's coming up. Secondly,
(01:19):
touched on it very briefly last week. Okay, we are in Little
Rock. We did a Little RockMarathon, and I mean, honestly,
that was such a great event andwe all had such a great time.
It was really kind of hard tocome down from that event. And I
know that a lot of the peoplethat I went down there with are feeling
the same thing. It's like,whow, We're finally kind of starting to
get back in the groove now thatthat whole experience is getting a little farther
(01:41):
in the rear view mirror. Butit was a difficult one and if you
guys don't believe it, I didan episode about this after Boston last year.
But after a full marathon, orafter something that you have just looked
forward to for so long, thereis a bit of a letdown and a
disappointment and even dare I say adepression. Once that event has come and
gone, then it's like, okay, well what do I do now?
(02:04):
And so we touched on it then, so I'm not going to go back
over it. But it's definitely athing. So if you were a Little
Rock person, or if very recentlyyou kind of fulfilled a very big dream
of yours in the running world.If you do feel a little disappointed or
depressed about it, or a littlekind of you know, like a ship
without a rudder, and what doI do? It's natural. It's okay.
(02:24):
Don't feel bad because it happens toall of us once we do one
of those really big races that wehad always dreamed of doing. So give
yourself a break. You will finda new goal. You will find that
next big thing that really piques yourinterest, kind of sets you on fire.
You will find that, so justbe ready for it. But last
week was our one hundredth podcast episode, and again barely touched on it because
(02:47):
we were talking about Little Rock.But I want to thank everyone for one
hundred episodes of this podcast. Ithas been a wonderful ride. It has
been super duper fun and I can'tthank everyone enough for all that love and
support over the last hundred episodes.Now, this past weekend, the one
we just got done with, wehad two races that we had to do.
(03:07):
We had the Westport Saint Patrick's Stayfor miler for miler, not two
four. You'll see when the numbertwo is in my head here in a
second. And then we had theBeard Run on Sunday, which we will
cover that here in a minute.First Westport Saint Patrick stay for Miler the
reason two was in my head.That was the two year anniversary for this
podcast, So I think that's prettygood. Two years, one hundred episodes.
(03:30):
We did not take too many offweeks over the last two years.
So again, another huge thank youto everyone who has been suffering with us.
Now hopefully you don't suffer listening tothis, or I would tell you
not to. But who's been withus for the last two years, the
people who've been with us from thestart, the people who are just discovering
the podcast, I want to thankyou all so very much for coming along
(03:53):
on this fun little ride. Again. I get to come on here and
talk about running, which is somethingthat I love to do. I get
to go and talk to other peopleabout running, which is something that I
love to do. I get totalk to races about running, which has
been super fun. And so Iam very fortunate to be able to do
this, and I'm fortunate that youguys like listening to it, and so
hopefully we can continue on for onehundred more episodes and two more years,
(04:15):
and plus and beyond and all thatgood stuff. So hopefully we just keep
round on trucking. But the WestportSaint Patrick's Day four miler is now behind
us, a race that a lotof us have done many times over.
It's a good race. I likethis race, you know. I was
going into it with very tired legs, having been six days removed from a
full marathon, and like an idiot, you know, last week on Sunday
(04:36):
we did Little Rock Marathon, restedMonday, traveled back from Arkansas back to
Kansas City, got the podcast episodeout Tuesday night. My men's soccer team
needed me because it was a championshipgame. We needed all our players there.
So two days after a full marathon, I was back on the indoor
soccer pitch trying to help my teamwin a league championship, which we did
(04:59):
very little, if no credit goesto me, as I just kind of
occupied space and did my usual socceringthings. Thankfully, thankfully, yes,
my voice gives out on me there. Thankfully, the legs didn't feel too
bad, so I wasn't a detrimentto the team that was good. That
was good. I didn't do anyof the scoring, but I never do,
and so I was just there formy defensive purposes and then my hustle.
(05:21):
I can at least hustle around there. It's like I run marathons or
something. It's ridiculous. But anyway, then we only had a couple days
to rest and we were in Westportfor the four miler. Four miler went
great. I actually set a newpr for four mile races. I don't
know how that happened, but itdid. Actually ran a pretty decent race.
In this area, we have kindof the Sweet sixteen series. It's
(05:41):
a four race series every year.I don't always do all four, but
there is a history in this areaof four mile races between the Zoom Run
and the Westport Saint Patrick's State fourmiler, and let's see what are the
other ones involved? Oh four onthe fourth and Trolley Run. If you
do enough of those over the years, your form mile category, if you
keep track of your times, thatgoes up. So this was part of
(06:03):
that. This was one of thefour mile races when I've done a lot
and it's a good course. Nowhere, they're going to change the course
next year, so that's kind ofcool. We'll see if it's better.
We'll see if it's worse, seeif we like it, see if we
don't. But going to Westport Azolis fun. After the race, a
lot of people stayed at Kelly's inin Westport for a celebratory drink to the
two year anniversary of the Back ofthe Pack podcast. So thank you to
(06:27):
everyone who came out. Thank youto our buddy Cody who brought us a
cake so we had cake, becauseyou can't have a party without cake,
duh. And thank you to Amandawho got our table reserved for us.
I told the fast people when theygot done with the race to get into
the place and get us a table. The fast people did that, and
so I chose correctly because we hada great spot and everyone was able to
(06:47):
come in and enjoy either cake,cake and a beverage, just a beverage,
whatever you might have done. Therewas also pizza. I didn't even
have pizza. I should have hadpizza. Pizzazel was a good thing.
But we enjoyed that and so twoyears, two years, that's awesome.
It makes me very happy that thishas been a small, small bit of
(07:09):
successful for two years now, sothank you to everyone. Now the next
race was the beard race, butwe're going to get there in a minute,
because we have a question that keepspopping up a lot. As of
late. We're getting a lot ofnew listeners, which I love and thank
you all so much. A lotof people are going back through previous episodes
(07:29):
to kind of catch up on wherewe've been over the last two years one
hundred episodes, which is great,but I'm getting this question over and over
again. So for the newer people, I just wanted to address this real
fast. There is definitely back inthe fall of twenty twenty three, a
change in tone or a change inpresentation of this podcast. So for those
who didn't know, we were witha small teeny tiny production company at the
(07:53):
beginning, so we had someone elsewho was editing our podcast and was kind
of doing that thing. We hada different logo, different entrance music,
different kind of really a different vibeand a feel, and you would hear
that person from time to time onthe show. In late September, early
October whatever it was, twenty twentythree, that situation ended through a very
(08:15):
messy divorce and things changed but whathappened was with the with the termination of
the agreement with the former production company, we took everything we could of this
podcast. We didn't get everything inthe divorce, and we brought it all
in house. So it is allright here in my little arms, because
I am now host, producer,editor, creator, writer, director,
(08:39):
whatever of the podcast. That's allhere. Although missus back of the Pack
podcast did do all the logo designwork, so I give her credit whenever
possible because it keeps me out oftrouble. But yeah, so then is
why there's just kind of a change, especially if you're right around late September
early October of the of last year. We brought everything in say it's better,
(09:01):
it's you know again, I'm notthrowing stones as much as I would
like to sometimes, but it's justa different feel. It's a very different
thing. There is now no onewho can tell me no, which is
great, which means I can dowhatever I want, which is even better.
And so I've been doing more ofthe things that were previously maybe disagreed
(09:22):
with when we were trying to schemeways to make this podcast work before.
Now if I have an idea,I just roll with it. And some
of them work, some of themdon't. But I think our growth since
becoming our own thing has really kindof proven that a lot of these ideas
were mildly decent and they're working well. So that is why there's the change
in tone. Why I bring thatup now other than it's been a question
(09:46):
is one of the big issues thatled to the divorce was the former producer
in just a comment that was madeto me one time, and it still
sits wrong with me, and thisweekend is exactly why I was told that
this wasn't their community, the runningcommunity. The running community wasn't their community,
(10:07):
it wasn't their world. These weren'ttheir people, and that always bothered
me because anyone who has been inthe running community, and I mean not
just the Kansas City running community,although that's the one that is nearest and
dearest to me, but I thinkany running community around the country, you
know that the moment you show up, the moment that you enter that community,
(10:28):
you're in it and you are automaticallyloved and respected for who you are
and where you are in your runningjourney, whether that be elite level runner
to back of the pack runner toI've never laced a a pair of running
shoes. But yet I'm here.Maybe I'm gonna walk, Maybe I'm going
to observe, Maybe I'm going tomeet people. Maybe I am working on
(10:48):
my courage to take those few stepsforward, because trust me, it's not
easy, and it's not without itssense of dread and its sense of ah
gee. I mean, you've gotkind of a self. You might be
worried about what people think of you, you might be worried about what you
know, what others would see asyou're trucking up and down the sidewalk.
But the moment you enter this community, it is one of the greatest communities
(11:11):
that you will ever step foot in. And for me, it's the Kansas
City Running community. For the KansasCity running community. Before they had the
Back of the Pack podcast, theyhad Scott. They had Scott Green,
who we've talked about before. Andthis surprised a lot of people. And
I'm going to tell you right offthe bat, straight up, Scott Green
and I have never had a conversation. I have never talked to that guy.
(11:33):
We have exchanged knowing glances. Heknows of me, I know of
him. Our patht just never crossed. But I know the importance that he
has had in this running community inKansas City. I know how big of
a piece of the picture he wasin a lot of people's running journeys,
and for that, for that,if nothing else, I have much admiration
(11:56):
and much respect for Scott. Thisweekend we had the Beard Run, the
Beard Run. As you can see, I'm wearing the shirt. This is
Scott's run now. For those whodidn't know, Scott was diagnosed with cancer
back in May of twenty twenty three. He was only supposed to live a
few months. We're almost a yearand he's still there. He is still
(12:16):
here, I should say, andhe is still completing races. It is
now with help. It is nowa huge event. But his lifetime goal
was to make it to three hundredraces, and I can say now that
I personally got to witness Scott finishhis three hundred race. We had the
Beard Run yesterday, which was histhree hundred race. He was pushed across
(12:37):
the finish line by friends and familyand all of us lining the finisher shoot
to cheer him on as he finished. The race itself was a race.
I did a five k I've donefive k's. I've done a lot of
five k's, but the emotional,the emotional, I don't know, effort
that we all had to put inthat race, I think was far more
(12:58):
than the fist because that was avery heavy morning. As I said to
someone else there, it was avery wonderfully tragic morning. It was wonderful
that we could celebrate Scott and thathe could be there first three hundred race
and they'd finished this three hundredth race. Tragic because we know the situation around
it. I have personally lost twopeople in my life just too and for
(13:20):
some it might be more. I'velost two people in my life who are
very very dear to me to cancer, and I would love very much right
now to go on a profanity lacedtirade on how I feel about this particular
issue about cancer. I'll keep allmy conspiracy theories about big pharmaceutical and the
(13:43):
cancer community. I'll keep all thatto myself, although I certainly have my
own opinions and they're not not goodtowards anyone. That never mind, I
won't go there. I just won't. But it really was an emotional mourning
for me, and I know itwas for a lot of people, for
the people who actually know Scott,for the people who were introduced into this
running world because of Scott, peoplelike our buddy Cody, people like former
(14:05):
Ambassador Amy. And I say formerAmbassador Amy because we don't do the ambassador
thing anymore. That was the formerproduction company's idea, but our good friend
Amy. I know there are somany people who are in this running world
because of Scott Green, and likeI said, for that, I am
eternally grateful. So yesterday's morning theBeard Run, everyone was out there,
a great turnout. It was agreat turnout, and honestly, you couldn't
(14:26):
have ask for more beautiful morning.Sure it was a little cool, big
woop, it's March, but therewasn't a cloud in the sky. The
sun was shining. It was beautifulin Shawnee Mission Park. And so everyone
was there, everyone in green wearingeither the race shirt, which is what
I'm wearing now, or the shirtsthat we had made when Scott first got
sick, which that's what I waswearing. But everyone was in green.
(14:48):
Green had to toe and it wasawesome to see everyone I know from the
Kansas City running community was out there. Like I can't think of a single
person that wasn't there. Everyone wasthere. I'm going to give a big
shout out and everyone knows who I'mtalking about, and Brad, I'm talking
about you. But this race wasput on by one company. The race
(15:09):
director for a competing company was atthis race, who put aside promotional company
differences because he wanted to be therefor Scott and he wanted to volunteer to
serve any purpose that he could orany help that he could for that event,
not even being his event, butto do that for Scott. That
speaks volumes of Scott Green and therunning community in Kansas City that people are
(15:31):
willing to put aside a lot inorder to rally around this one person.
And if you've ever wondered if aperson can make a difference, then you
had no further to look than yesterday'srace with hundreds and hundreds of people there
to celebrate one man and one man'saccomplishment. And so it was great in
this course made me think of myfriends who I had lost, Sarah Ray
(15:54):
and Shaney Stole, both people Ilove dearly who were taken from us exceedingly
too early due to cancer. Now, this leads me to another race that
I want to kind of point youguys to on April twenty eighth, is
the get your Rear in Gear fiveK. It is for colon cancer.
(16:15):
It is near and dear to myheart because that's how we lost my good,
dear friend Shaney. So it isthe day after Top City, but
it's a five k. It's inZona Rosa, which is kind of by
the airport in Kansas City, Missouri. If anyone is looking for a way
to again continue in this joint fightagainst cancer, and really trust me,
all we are fighting against cancer everyday in every way that we can.
(16:37):
But I want to point you guysin the direction of the going not going
to distance. Sorry, that's adifferent race, equally important, but different
race. Point you in the directionof the get your rear in Gear five
k again on April twenty eighth.There is you can choose your teams.
You can choose Team Shaney if youwould like. There is not a back
of the pack podcast team because likeyesterday's Beard run where there was no podcast
(17:00):
gear on me, there probably won'tbe either for that race. That race
is for Shaney. Yesterday was forScott, and I can certainly differentiate between
you know, a yay fun podcastrace or a race with much bigger purpose,
life altering purposes like these. Thatreally and the thing about the Get
your Rear and Gear five K isthey are all about early detection. Know
(17:21):
what's going on with your body.Colon cancer it is a son of a
gun and early detection is the bestthing that you can do for it.
And so I just want to makesure that everyone is aware. Yeah,
there are there are people and entitiesout there that are helping in these fights.
They of course need more awareness,they need funds if it's about all
possible. But just like we didthe Beard Run for Scott, let's look
(17:44):
at the Get your Rear and Gearfive K for colon cancer to again increase
awareness, increase their their able,their ability to kind of spread the word
and get out there in the inthe world and in the community. They
travel around to different races or differentcities and do different races around the countries.
So let's please get out there andsupport them if at all possible.
So I know that was not inthe twenty twenty four preview episode. That's
(18:07):
one that I just kind of droppedon us. They actually just released the
date last week. Usually they doit in September. They're not doing in
September this year. They're doing itin April. I don't care. Do
it whenever you want. And yesit's the day after half marathon, doesn't
really matter. I'll be there anyway, because if I'm playing soccer two days
after a full marathon, I imagineI could do a five k the morning
after a half marathon, right,I mean that seems to make sense to
(18:30):
me. Sure, we're gonna gowith that. So anyway, next week,
what do we have coming up?Next week? We only have a
five k? Can you guys believethat? It feels like all we've done
are have some foles lately and orback to back weekends like we did this
weekend. The oe next week isjust a five K. We're at the
Saint Patrick's Day five K in OverlandPark, Kansas. And then after that
(18:52):
it begins. The Heartland thirty ninepoint three half marathon series begins on the
twenty third of March, and thatis with the Liberty Liberty half Marathon,
half marathon and five K. Theydo have the five K there. If
you are going to Liberty and youare you have to go up there the
day before to get your packet rightright well. Back at the Liberty Expo
(19:15):
this year, just like last year, will be the table for the back
of the pack podcast. So Ihope anyone who hears this will come out
there and say hello to me asI work the table all day. I
know it's not quite going to bethe same as a Little Rock. It's
not going to be a two dayexpo with thousands upon thousands upon thousands of
people coming through, but it isgoing to be all of us local runners
who are ready to challenge ourselves withthat Liberty Half marathon, because that race
(19:40):
is no freaking joke man. Butyes, it's on Friday, the twenty
second of a March. March.Boy can't talk today, and so I
want you guys to please all comeout and come visit me at the table
while you're getting all your stuff forLiberty. If you need to go backwards
a couple of weeks, go findthe interview that we did with Julie of
Liberty Half. I keep okay,look, I'm gonna call it what it
(20:02):
is because everyone's going to wonder whyI keep messing up the name. I
am so used to when it wascalled the Liberty Hospital Half. I was
just so used to saying those alltogether, a Liberty Hospital Half. It
is not is the Liberty Half Marathon. I've got to say this correctly.
But I'm just telling you because we'refriends here as to why I keep flubbing
this name. So come do theLiberty Half. Come to the Liberty Half
(20:23):
Expo and visit yours truly at theback of the pack podcast table. So
that's really it. There really wasnot going to be any big message today.
I just want to throw out therejust my love for all you guys
in the Kansas City running community,guys and gals. After the trip to
Little Rock, I really feel alot closer to a lot of the group
(20:45):
that went with me, and Iknow a lot of them feel the same
way. And then yesterday's race,it just re emphasized to me just how
wonderful our group is and the factthat someone would say these are my people,
this isn't my group. Oh thatgets me every time. Every time
I think about it now, Ilaugh because I've never met a better group
of people, a more understanding groupof people, a group of people that
(21:08):
want to see everybody succeed no matteryour ability level in this running world,
even outside this running world, Likewe talk about things now that are outside
of running. We talk about familyand faith and friends and kids and jobs
and just life in general, allthe stuff that faces us on a day
to day basis. And we've gota group of people who are all there
(21:30):
willing to help you with whatever hascome up. And it is a wealth
of knowledge of people who have beenthrough everything in life, who if you
haven't faced it, maybe they haveand maybe they've got something they can share
with you to help you along yourpath. So it's this network of running
in Kansas City is huge, andI hope it's just as big wherever you
are. I'm sure that it is, because everywhere I go now people talk
(21:53):
about the strength of their running communityand it just makes me so happy,
so happy that there are runners outthere willing to help each other through thick
and thin, all aspects of life. And so it's it really is.
It's very touching. Again doing everythingI can on this episode to keep myself
composed, because I didn't yesterday.Yesterday at the Beard Run, that was
(22:15):
difficult. I was so glad tobe there. I was so glad to
see Scott cross the finish line,but like everyone else, just the the
overwhelming waves of emotion after he crossed, they just came kind of crashing down,
and I had to excuse myself fromthe situation. As you know,
memories of my friends that I've lostcame flooding back into my mind, and
(22:37):
I'm sure everyone else was kind ofthe same way. So I know this
is kind of a subdued episode.You know, They're not all just me
bouncing off the walls, which,honestly, my lags are so tired.
There is no bouncing off the wallstoday or for the next few days,
because man, I am beat.So we had just going backwards. We
(22:57):
had Vegas the half marathon. Fastforward the next weekend the Little Rock we
have five k full marathon. Fastforward to this past weekend, four miler
five k. Been a lot ofrunning, sprinkle in do the little Salt
Bay thing. Yeah, I'm gonnasprinkle in a little men's indoor soccer in
between, and then this week Imight have to go out and play on
(23:18):
some men's softball. So never dullmoment for yours truly, Apparently I am
a glutton for punishment, but justto kind of wrap it up. Everyone,
thank you so much for one hundredepisodes, this one now one oh
one. Thank you very much fortwo years of support. It has been
honestly my pleasure to get up anddo this every week. I really take
(23:42):
a lot of joy in being ableto do this, and of course the
joy in going out and meeting newpeople and seeing old friends and connecting with
everyone that I can within the runningcommunity in Kansas City and beyond, and
so I hope that we can domore. Remember, if you want to
help this show grow, all youhave to do is well. Our main
(24:02):
social media platform is Facebook, Soon Facebook, like the episodes, share
the episodes, comment on the episodes, play along with the stuff that we
post during the week. Every interactionyou give this podcast is helpful. Facebook
actually had to pay us money.I made a whole three dollars off of
Facebook monetization. Let's go three dollarsbaby over. In the podcast world,
Spotify, iTunes, iHeartRadio, whereveryou get your podcasts, it's all great.
(24:26):
Please feel free to leave a review. Reviews are always helpful in growing
the podcast. And then just hey, word of mouth, man tell your
friends tell your family, tell anyonewho will listen how much you enjoy the
Back of the Pack podcast, andthat is how we grow. So thank
you very much from me to allof you, even a thank you to
the contributions of our former production companyway back when, two years, one
(24:51):
hundred episodes. What Mark can youdo? So I appreciate it. I've
been your host. I'm Kyle Walker. Ask me. I've been called worse,
but thank you from me to you. Everyone. Have a great week
of training and we will see younext week.
Hello everyone, greetings and salutations.Welcome back to another episode of the Back
of the Pack podcast. I'm yourhost, Kyle Walker. Thank you so
much for tuning in. Another verybusy weekend is now in the books.
I hope everyone had a great timerunning. It's a beautiful outside. We're
in March, almost to mid March. We're lucking out here in our area.
I hope you are in yours aswell as the weather has just been
(00:34):
splendid. Before we really jump intoanything, I want to make sure to
throw out there from the time ofthis recording, which is March eleventh,
you have ten days left if youwant to throw your name in for the
New York City Marathon. The lotteryis still taking people. It is open
for ten more days. It closeson March twenty first, and the drawing
(00:55):
for the lottery is on March twentyeighth, So we will know on March
twenty if any of us made itto the New York City Marathon. So,
if that is something big and importantto you, and again you have
heard what I think of this race. You've heard it a lot big fan.
If you want to do it yourself, then definitely get your name in
the lottery for the New York CityMarathon, so that's coming up. Secondly,
(01:19):
touched on it very briefly last week. Okay, we are in Little
Rock. We did a Little RockMarathon, and I mean, honestly,
that was such a great event andwe all had such a great time.
It was really kind of hard tocome down from that event. And I
know that a lot of the peoplethat I went down there with are feeling
the same thing. It's like,whow, We're finally kind of starting to
get back in the groove now thatthat whole experience is getting a little farther
(01:41):
in the rear view mirror. Butit was a difficult one and if you
guys don't believe it, I didan episode about this after Boston last year.
But after a full marathon, orafter something that you have just looked
forward to for so long, thereis a bit of a letdown and a
disappointment and even dare I say adepression. Once that event has come and
gone, then it's like, okay, well what do I do now?
(02:04):
And so we touched on it then, so I'm not going to go back
over it. But it's definitely athing. So if you were a Little
Rock person, or if very recentlyyou kind of fulfilled a very big dream
of yours in the running world.If you do feel a little disappointed or
depressed about it, or a littlekind of you know, like a ship
without a rudder, and what doI do? It's natural. It's okay.
(02:24):
Don't feel bad because it happens toall of us once we do one
of those really big races that wehad always dreamed of doing. So give
yourself a break. You will finda new goal. You will find that
next big thing that really piques yourinterest, kind of sets you on fire.
You will find that, so justbe ready for it. But last
week was our one hundredth podcast episode, and again barely touched on it because
(02:47):
we were talking about Little Rock.But I want to thank everyone for one
hundred episodes of this podcast. Ithas been a wonderful ride. It has
been super duper fun and I can'tthank everyone enough for all that love and
support over the last hundred episodes.Now, this past weekend, the one
we just got done with, wehad two races that we had to do.
(03:07):
We had the Westport Saint Patrick's Stayfor miler for miler, not two
four. You'll see when the numbertwo is in my head here in a
second. And then we had theBeard Run on Sunday, which we will
cover that here in a minute.First Westport Saint Patrick stay for Miler the
reason two was in my head.That was the two year anniversary for this
podcast, So I think that's prettygood. Two years, one hundred episodes.
(03:30):
We did not take too many offweeks over the last two years.
So again, another huge thank youto everyone who has been suffering with us.
Now hopefully you don't suffer listening tothis, or I would tell you
not to. But who's been withus for the last two years, the
people who've been with us from thestart, the people who are just discovering
the podcast, I want to thankyou all so very much for coming along
(03:53):
on this fun little ride. Again. I get to come on here and
talk about running, which is somethingthat I love to do. I get
to go and talk to other peopleabout running, which is something that I
love to do. I get totalk to races about running, which has
been super fun. And so Iam very fortunate to be able to do
this, and I'm fortunate that youguys like listening to it, and so
hopefully we can continue on for onehundred more episodes and two more years,
(04:15):
and plus and beyond and all thatgood stuff. So hopefully we just keep
round on trucking. But the WestportSaint Patrick's Day four miler is now behind
us, a race that a lotof us have done many times over.
It's a good race. I likethis race, you know. I was
going into it with very tired legs, having been six days removed from a
full marathon, and like an idiot, you know, last week on Sunday
(04:36):
we did Little Rock Marathon, restedMonday, traveled back from Arkansas back to
Kansas City, got the podcast episodeout Tuesday night. My men's soccer team
needed me because it was a championshipgame. We needed all our players there.
So two days after a full marathon, I was back on the indoor
soccer pitch trying to help my teamwin a league championship, which we did
(04:59):
very little, if no credit goesto me, as I just kind of
occupied space and did my usual socceringthings. Thankfully, thankfully, yes,
my voice gives out on me there. Thankfully, the legs didn't feel too
bad, so I wasn't a detrimentto the team that was good. That
was good. I didn't do anyof the scoring, but I never do,
and so I was just there formy defensive purposes and then my hustle.
(05:21):
I can at least hustle around there. It's like I run marathons or
something. It's ridiculous. But anyway, then we only had a couple days
to rest and we were in Westportfor the four miler. Four miler went
great. I actually set a newpr for four mile races. I don't
know how that happened, but itdid. Actually ran a pretty decent race.
In this area, we have kindof the Sweet sixteen series. It's
(05:41):
a four race series every year.I don't always do all four, but
there is a history in this areaof four mile races between the Zoom Run
and the Westport Saint Patrick's State fourmiler, and let's see what are the
other ones involved? Oh four onthe fourth and Trolley Run. If you
do enough of those over the years, your form mile category, if you
keep track of your times, thatgoes up. So this was part of
(06:03):
that. This was one of thefour mile races when I've done a lot
and it's a good course. Nowhere, they're going to change the course
next year, so that's kind ofcool. We'll see if it's better.
We'll see if it's worse, seeif we like it, see if we
don't. But going to Westport Azolis fun. After the race, a
lot of people stayed at Kelly's inin Westport for a celebratory drink to the
two year anniversary of the Back ofthe Pack podcast. So thank you to
(06:27):
everyone who came out. Thank youto our buddy Cody who brought us a
cake so we had cake, becauseyou can't have a party without cake,
duh. And thank you to Amandawho got our table reserved for us.
I told the fast people when theygot done with the race to get into
the place and get us a table. The fast people did that, and
so I chose correctly because we hada great spot and everyone was able to
(06:47):
come in and enjoy either cake,cake and a beverage, just a beverage,
whatever you might have done. Therewas also pizza. I didn't even
have pizza. I should have hadpizza. Pizzazel was a good thing.
But we enjoyed that and so twoyears, two years, that's awesome.
It makes me very happy that thishas been a small, small bit of
(07:09):
successful for two years now, sothank you to everyone. Now the next
race was the beard race, butwe're going to get there in a minute,
because we have a question that keepspopping up a lot. As of
late. We're getting a lot ofnew listeners, which I love and thank
you all so much. A lotof people are going back through previous episodes
(07:29):
to kind of catch up on wherewe've been over the last two years one
hundred episodes, which is great,but I'm getting this question over and over
again. So for the newer people, I just wanted to address this real
fast. There is definitely back inthe fall of twenty twenty three, a
change in tone or a change inpresentation of this podcast. So for those
who didn't know, we were witha small teeny tiny production company at the
(07:53):
beginning, so we had someone elsewho was editing our podcast and was kind
of doing that thing. We hada different logo, different entrance music,
different kind of really a different vibeand a feel, and you would hear
that person from time to time onthe show. In late September, early
October whatever it was, twenty twentythree, that situation ended through a very
(08:15):
messy divorce and things changed but whathappened was with the with the termination of
the agreement with the former production company, we took everything we could of this
podcast. We didn't get everything inthe divorce, and we brought it all
in house. So it is allright here in my little arms, because
I am now host, producer,editor, creator, writer, director,
(08:39):
whatever of the podcast. That's allhere. Although missus back of the Pack
podcast did do all the logo designwork, so I give her credit whenever
possible because it keeps me out oftrouble. But yeah, so then is
why there's just kind of a change, especially if you're right around late September
early October of the of last year. We brought everything in say it's better,
(09:01):
it's you know again, I'm notthrowing stones as much as I would
like to sometimes, but it's justa different feel. It's a very different
thing. There is now no onewho can tell me no, which is
great, which means I can dowhatever I want, which is even better.
And so I've been doing more ofthe things that were previously maybe disagreed
(09:22):
with when we were trying to schemeways to make this podcast work before.
Now if I have an idea,I just roll with it. And some
of them work, some of themdon't. But I think our growth since
becoming our own thing has really kindof proven that a lot of these ideas
were mildly decent and they're working well. So that is why there's the change
in tone. Why I bring thatup now other than it's been a question
(09:46):
is one of the big issues thatled to the divorce was the former producer
in just a comment that was madeto me one time, and it still
sits wrong with me, and thisweekend is exactly why I was told that
this wasn't their community, the runningcommunity. The running community wasn't their community,
(10:07):
it wasn't their world. These weren'ttheir people, and that always bothered
me because anyone who has been inthe running community, and I mean not
just the Kansas City running community,although that's the one that is nearest and
dearest to me, but I thinkany running community around the country, you
know that the moment you show up, the moment that you enter that community,
(10:28):
you're in it and you are automaticallyloved and respected for who you are
and where you are in your runningjourney, whether that be elite level runner
to back of the pack runner toI've never laced a a pair of running
shoes. But yet I'm here.Maybe I'm gonna walk, Maybe I'm going
to observe, Maybe I'm going tomeet people. Maybe I am working on
(10:48):
my courage to take those few stepsforward, because trust me, it's not
easy, and it's not without itssense of dread and its sense of ah
gee. I mean, you've gotkind of a self. You might be
worried about what people think of you, you might be worried about what you
know, what others would see asyou're trucking up and down the sidewalk.
But the moment you enter this community, it is one of the greatest communities
(11:11):
that you will ever step foot in. And for me, it's the Kansas
City Running community. For the KansasCity running community. Before they had the
Back of the Pack podcast, theyhad Scott. They had Scott Green,
who we've talked about before. Andthis surprised a lot of people. And
I'm going to tell you right offthe bat, straight up, Scott Green
and I have never had a conversation. I have never talked to that guy.
(11:33):
We have exchanged knowing glances. Heknows of me, I know of
him. Our patht just never crossed. But I know the importance that he
has had in this running community inKansas City. I know how big of
a piece of the picture he wasin a lot of people's running journeys,
and for that, for that,if nothing else, I have much admiration
(11:56):
and much respect for Scott. Thisweekend we had the Beard Run, the
Beard Run. As you can see, I'm wearing the shirt. This is
Scott's run now. For those whodidn't know, Scott was diagnosed with cancer
back in May of twenty twenty three. He was only supposed to live a
few months. We're almost a yearand he's still there. He is still
(12:16):
here, I should say, andhe is still completing races. It is
now with help. It is nowa huge event. But his lifetime goal
was to make it to three hundredraces, and I can say now that
I personally got to witness Scott finishhis three hundred race. We had the
Beard Run yesterday, which was histhree hundred race. He was pushed across
(12:37):
the finish line by friends and familyand all of us lining the finisher shoot
to cheer him on as he finished. The race itself was a race.
I did a five k I've donefive k's. I've done a lot of
five k's, but the emotional,the emotional, I don't know, effort
that we all had to put inthat race, I think was far more
(12:58):
than the fist because that was avery heavy morning. As I said to
someone else there, it was avery wonderfully tragic morning. It was wonderful
that we could celebrate Scott and thathe could be there first three hundred race
and they'd finished this three hundredth race. Tragic because we know the situation around
it. I have personally lost twopeople in my life just too and for
(13:20):
some it might be more. I'velost two people in my life who are
very very dear to me to cancer, and I would love very much right
now to go on a profanity lacedtirade on how I feel about this particular
issue about cancer. I'll keep allmy conspiracy theories about big pharmaceutical and the
(13:43):
cancer community. I'll keep all thatto myself, although I certainly have my
own opinions and they're not not goodtowards anyone. That never mind, I
won't go there. I just won't. But it really was an emotional mourning
for me, and I know itwas for a lot of people, for
the people who actually know Scott,for the people who were introduced into this
running world because of Scott, peoplelike our buddy Cody, people like former
(14:05):
Ambassador Amy. And I say formerAmbassador Amy because we don't do the ambassador
thing anymore. That was the formerproduction company's idea, but our good friend
Amy. I know there are somany people who are in this running world
because of Scott Green, and likeI said, for that, I am
eternally grateful. So yesterday's morning theBeard Run, everyone was out there,
a great turnout. It was agreat turnout, and honestly, you couldn't
(14:26):
have ask for more beautiful morning.Sure it was a little cool, big
woop, it's March, but therewasn't a cloud in the sky. The
sun was shining. It was beautifulin Shawnee Mission Park. And so everyone
was there, everyone in green wearingeither the race shirt, which is what
I'm wearing now, or the shirtsthat we had made when Scott first got
sick, which that's what I waswearing. But everyone was in green.
(14:48):
Green had to toe and it wasawesome to see everyone I know from the
Kansas City running community was out there. Like I can't think of a single
person that wasn't there. Everyone wasthere. I'm going to give a big
shout out and everyone knows who I'mtalking about, and Brad, I'm talking
about you. But this race wasput on by one company. The race
(15:09):
director for a competing company was atthis race, who put aside promotional company
differences because he wanted to be therefor Scott and he wanted to volunteer to
serve any purpose that he could orany help that he could for that event,
not even being his event, butto do that for Scott. That
speaks volumes of Scott Green and therunning community in Kansas City that people are
(15:31):
willing to put aside a lot inorder to rally around this one person.
And if you've ever wondered if aperson can make a difference, then you
had no further to look than yesterday'srace with hundreds and hundreds of people there
to celebrate one man and one man'saccomplishment. And so it was great in
this course made me think of myfriends who I had lost, Sarah Ray
(15:54):
and Shaney Stole, both people Ilove dearly who were taken from us exceedingly
too early due to cancer. Now, this leads me to another race that
I want to kind of point youguys to on April twenty eighth, is
the get your Rear in Gear fiveK. It is for colon cancer.
(16:15):
It is near and dear to myheart because that's how we lost my good,
dear friend Shaney. So it isthe day after Top City, but
it's a five k. It's inZona Rosa, which is kind of by
the airport in Kansas City, Missouri. If anyone is looking for a way
to again continue in this joint fightagainst cancer, and really trust me,
all we are fighting against cancer everyday in every way that we can.
(16:37):
But I want to point you guysin the direction of the going not going
to distance. Sorry, that's adifferent race, equally important, but different
race. Point you in the directionof the get your rear in Gear five
k again on April twenty eighth.There is you can choose your teams.
You can choose Team Shaney if youwould like. There is not a back
of the pack podcast team because likeyesterday's Beard run where there was no podcast
(17:00):
gear on me, there probably won'tbe either for that race. That race
is for Shaney. Yesterday was forScott, and I can certainly differentiate between
you know, a yay fun podcastrace or a race with much bigger purpose,
life altering purposes like these. Thatreally and the thing about the Get
your Rear and Gear five K isthey are all about early detection. Know
(17:21):
what's going on with your body.Colon cancer it is a son of a
gun and early detection is the bestthing that you can do for it.
And so I just want to makesure that everyone is aware. Yeah,
there are there are people and entitiesout there that are helping in these fights.
They of course need more awareness,they need funds if it's about all
possible. But just like we didthe Beard Run for Scott, let's look
(17:44):
at the Get your Rear and Gearfive K for colon cancer to again increase
awareness, increase their their able,their ability to kind of spread the word
and get out there in the inthe world and in the community. They
travel around to different races or differentcities and do different races around the countries.
So let's please get out there andsupport them if at all possible.
So I know that was not inthe twenty twenty four preview episode. That's
(18:07):
one that I just kind of droppedon us. They actually just released the
date last week. Usually they doit in September. They're not doing in
September this year. They're doing itin April. I don't care. Do
it whenever you want. And yesit's the day after half marathon, doesn't
really matter. I'll be there anyway, because if I'm playing soccer two days
after a full marathon, I imagineI could do a five k the morning
after a half marathon, right,I mean that seems to make sense to
(18:30):
me. Sure, we're gonna gowith that. So anyway, next week,
what do we have coming up?Next week? We only have a
five k? Can you guys believethat? It feels like all we've done
are have some foles lately and orback to back weekends like we did this
weekend. The oe next week isjust a five K. We're at the
Saint Patrick's Day five K in OverlandPark, Kansas. And then after that
(18:52):
it begins. The Heartland thirty ninepoint three half marathon series begins on the
twenty third of March, and thatis with the Liberty Liberty half Marathon,
half marathon and five K. Theydo have the five K there. If
you are going to Liberty and youare you have to go up there the
day before to get your packet rightright well. Back at the Liberty Expo
(19:15):
this year, just like last year, will be the table for the back
of the pack podcast. So Ihope anyone who hears this will come out
there and say hello to me asI work the table all day. I
know it's not quite going to bethe same as a Little Rock. It's
not going to be a two dayexpo with thousands upon thousands upon thousands of
people coming through, but it isgoing to be all of us local runners
who are ready to challenge ourselves withthat Liberty Half marathon, because that race
(19:40):
is no freaking joke man. Butyes, it's on Friday, the twenty
second of a March. March.Boy can't talk today, and so I
want you guys to please all comeout and come visit me at the table
while you're getting all your stuff forLiberty. If you need to go backwards
a couple of weeks, go findthe interview that we did with Julie of
Liberty Half. I keep okay,look, I'm gonna call it what it
(20:02):
is because everyone's going to wonder whyI keep messing up the name. I
am so used to when it wascalled the Liberty Hospital Half. I was
just so used to saying those alltogether, a Liberty Hospital Half. It
is not is the Liberty Half Marathon. I've got to say this correctly.
But I'm just telling you because we'refriends here as to why I keep flubbing
this name. So come do theLiberty Half. Come to the Liberty Half
(20:23):
Expo and visit yours truly at theback of the pack podcast table. So
that's really it. There really wasnot going to be any big message today.
I just want to throw out therejust my love for all you guys
in the Kansas City running community,guys and gals. After the trip to
Little Rock, I really feel alot closer to a lot of the group
(20:45):
that went with me, and Iknow a lot of them feel the same
way. And then yesterday's race,it just re emphasized to me just how
wonderful our group is and the factthat someone would say these are my people,
this isn't my group. Oh thatgets me every time. Every time
I think about it now, Ilaugh because I've never met a better group
of people, a more understanding groupof people, a group of people that
(21:08):
want to see everybody succeed no matteryour ability level in this running world,
even outside this running world, Likewe talk about things now that are outside
of running. We talk about familyand faith and friends and kids and jobs
and just life in general, allthe stuff that faces us on a day
to day basis. And we've gota group of people who are all there
(21:30):
willing to help you with whatever hascome up. And it is a wealth
of knowledge of people who have beenthrough everything in life, who if you
haven't faced it, maybe they haveand maybe they've got something they can share
with you to help you along yourpath. So it's this network of running
in Kansas City is huge, andI hope it's just as big wherever you
are. I'm sure that it is, because everywhere I go now people talk
(21:53):
about the strength of their running communityand it just makes me so happy,
so happy that there are runners outthere willing to help each other through thick
and thin, all aspects of life. And so it's it really is.
It's very touching. Again doing everythingI can on this episode to keep myself
composed, because I didn't yesterday.Yesterday at the Beard Run, that was
(22:15):
difficult. I was so glad tobe there. I was so glad to
see Scott cross the finish line,but like everyone else, just the the
overwhelming waves of emotion after he crossed, they just came kind of crashing down,
and I had to excuse myself fromthe situation. As you know,
memories of my friends that I've lostcame flooding back into my mind, and
(22:37):
I'm sure everyone else was kind ofthe same way. So I know this
is kind of a subdued episode.You know, They're not all just me
bouncing off the walls, which,honestly, my lags are so tired.
There is no bouncing off the wallstoday or for the next few days,
because man, I am beat.So we had just going backwards. We
(22:57):
had Vegas the half marathon. Fastforward the next weekend the Little Rock we
have five k full marathon. Fastforward to this past weekend, four miler
five k. Been a lot ofrunning, sprinkle in do the little Salt
Bay thing. Yeah, I'm gonnasprinkle in a little men's indoor soccer in
between, and then this week Imight have to go out and play on
(23:18):
some men's softball. So never dullmoment for yours truly, Apparently I am
a glutton for punishment, but justto kind of wrap it up. Everyone,
thank you so much for one hundredepisodes, this one now one oh
one. Thank you very much fortwo years of support. It has been
honestly my pleasure to get up anddo this every week. I really take
(23:42):
a lot of joy in being ableto do this, and of course the
joy in going out and meeting newpeople and seeing old friends and connecting with
everyone that I can within the runningcommunity in Kansas City and beyond, and
so I hope that we can domore. Remember, if you want to
help this show grow, all youhave to do is well. Our main
(24:02):
social media platform is Facebook, Soon Facebook, like the episodes, share
the episodes, comment on the episodes, play along with the stuff that we
post during the week. Every interactionyou give this podcast is helpful. Facebook
actually had to pay us money.I made a whole three dollars off of
Facebook monetization. Let's go three dollarsbaby over. In the podcast world,
Spotify, iTunes, iHeartRadio, whereveryou get your podcasts, it's all great.
(24:26):
Please feel free to leave a review. Reviews are always helpful in growing
the podcast. And then just hey, word of mouth, man tell your
friends tell your family, tell anyonewho will listen how much you enjoy the
Back of the Pack podcast, andthat is how we grow. So thank
you very much from me to allof you, even a thank you to
the contributions of our former production companyway back when, two years, one
(24:51):
hundred episodes. What Mark can youdo? So I appreciate it. I've
been your host. I'm Kyle Walker. Ask me. I've been called worse,
but thank you from me to you. Everyone. Have a great week
of training and we will see younext week.
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